Family
by SgtMac
Summary: In order to save her father's life, Regina chooses to return to the living world with Robin and Henry, but it's a decision she can't live with. She can't leave the people she loves behind. She can't leave Emma behind. So she doesn't. Swan Queen. Regal Believer. All the relationships that make up this little family that is Charming-Mills.
**A/N:** This takes place right in the middle of 4x12 (after Emma tells Regina to go home). It does contain some scenes with Robin in it and does mention Hook. But it's Swan Queen for the win. It also contains Regina/her parents, Regina/Henry, and Emma and her parents. Enjoy!

* * *

"Then it's settled; you'll take Henry and Robin and go home," Emma says, her voice almost unbearably soft, her eyes wet. She tries to smile, but it comes off as something like a desperate heartbroken frown, and Regina's spent a whole lot of her life wishing for someone to reach out and touch her, but no one has looked like they need such a thing more than Emma does.

Before Regina can fully consider this idea, though, Emma is stepping away from Regina and moving over to Henry. Like she's preparing herself to say goodbye to her son. Maybe for good.

Unable to watch this (Henry's crying now, too - pleading with Emma to let him stay) Regina turns her head, and looks at Robin. Looks at him for hope and answers and a way to not lose her father and to not fail Emma. But Robin is quiet and there for her and he tells her that he'll support her whatever she chooses.

He's stoic and steady.

Maybe later, that will be helpful and necessary, but right now…it's nothing.

Her fingers glancing off his arm, she moves away from him, moves to her fathers' grave, but he's already gone - already in her mothers' hands and awaiting a fate that he can't control - and Regina knows that there are only two options available.

Let her father die again or abandon Emma to this nightmare.

She puts a hand over her chest, feels her heart pounding away. She feels the weight of this choice – of the consequences of it. No matter what choice she makes, it'll be the wrong one.

Emma says go.

Snow says stay.

Robin says nothing.

And she will never ask Henry to make such a choice for her.

She traces her fingers over her fathers' name, and thinks about the sound his body had made when it had fallen to the ground, a hole in his chest where his heart should have been. Tears fall from her eyes, and her knees wobble. "Daddy," she whispers and has so many things to say.

So many words that swell in the middle of her and hurt on their way back out.

Behind her, she can feel everyone shifting, waiting; she knows where they all stand.

Her hand still on her father's tombstone, Regina turns and looks at Emma, their watery eyes meeting. "I'm sorry," she says when the blonde slowly approaches her, both of them knowing the moment of decision has come. Regina allows herself a moment to take Emma in, to try to remember the face of someone whom she had once wanted to just...disappear for good.

And now…now.

"Don't be," Emma urges, pulling Regina back to the immediate here and now. "It's okay. I understand. And -" she laughs but the sound is hollow and Regina has to bite back on the dead certain realization that she is seeing Emma for the very last time. "I'll be right behind you."

"You had damn well better be, Swan," Regina says, her voice thick and emotional and so very defeated. "Get your pirate and get your ass back up top. He's not the only one who needs you."

And there it is; she hadn't meant to say it, but then the words had just bubbled out of her, and she finds that she doesn't actually want to take them back. Their eyes meet for far longer than they should, but then Emma is nodding, "Henry is mad at me for sending him back up, but -"

"He never should have been down here to begin with. And he'll be fine. Once you're home."

"Okay," Emma replies and they're back to just staring at each other.

Until Regina decides that if this is going to be the last time they see each other in this life, she's at least going to let Emma know how much this weird friendship of theirs has meant to her.

From enemies to allies to friends to…something beyond easy definition.

Regina steps forward and then they're hugging, arms strong and tight.

Regina whispers again, "I'm sorry."

There are other things she wishes she could say in this moment, but all these words catch in her throat; Emma is here for Hook and she won't be the one to confuse Emma away from what she believes is her happiness. She won't be the one to muddy the emotional waters between them.

Besides, it's not like she's resolved in these…feelings, anyway.

They're madness, and she has Robin. She loves Robin. He's a good man and -

"Don't turn the lights off," Emma says softly, against her shoulder.

"I won't," Regina promises.

They finally step back and away from each other – finding relative safety – and Regina thinks there's a moment between them when eyes drop to lips, but Robin is two feet away from them, and Hook is somewhere in this hell and…this…this just isn't what they are to each other.

Regina nods her head sharply so that she doesn't start crying (she is), and then she's turning and walking away, a silently sulking Henry and a silently supportive Robin Hood at her side.

* * *

The first week passes back in Storybrooke passes slowly and without their return. Regina tells herself that of course it had taken so long, but that they will all be back up soon enough.

The town people are hostile to her for coming back with just Henry and Robin (she hears more than a few accusations of leaving the others behind so that she could regain power, and these words hurt more than she had ever thought possible), but she refuses to be baited by them.

Because she hasn't come so far to end up back where she was.

Henry says to her every night before he closes his eyes, "Let's go back, Mom."

Every night she replies, "We can't."

Every night, he looks at her like he knows something that she doesn't.

In truth, the first few days she had told him that, it's because what would have been the point of coming back to the surface if they're going to just turn right back around again? She had made this choice to save her father and to pull Henry and Robin out of the line of fire. Now, Henry is safe back up in this world and Robin is getting to bond with his new baby girl finally.

It's how it should be. Right?

That answer shifts by the end of the first week, and then her words to Henry – "we can't" – are because she has no idea how to not only get back to Hell, but then how to bring everyone home. What's the point of a rescue mission if she's just going to get stuck with everyone else?

Assuming they are stuck.

She tells herself they aren't and knows that they are.

Or worse.

She paces as she thinks these things, anxious energy and magical sparks. Her hands clench and unclench and she tries to calm her mind so that she can think logically about all of this. She reminds herself that acting on emotion and fear is what often leads to really bad choices.

But Robin assures her that Emma and Snow and David will be just fine; they will find Hook and get him back up and it'll just take a few more days. She agrees with him in a dubious tone and then he asks her if she would like him to come over and keep her company; she says no and doesn't tell him that she plans to spend the entire night looking for a way to return to Hell.

* * *

The second and third weeks pass, and she's gone from anxious pacing to heavy drinking.

Really, that's the only way to put it.

She wakes up at two in the morning one night late in the third week, nightmarish visions of Emma and Snow in her mind, and after she's done throwing up, she finds a completely full bottle of whiskey.

And drinks from it until she falls asleep again.

Henry finds her in the morning, and she's horrified and embarrassed, but then he's curling against her with an arm around her waist and his head on her shoulder. He says, "I know."

She thinks he doesn't.

But then he looks at her with Emma's eyes, and she thinks maybe he does.

* * *

She wakes up screaming Emma's name one night, but when Robin asks her to talk about it, she shakes her head. Not because the dream had been intimate (it had been, but not in a sexual way), but because even saying what she'd seen could make it more real. And what she'd seen had been Emma being badly hurt – the blonde crying out in pain as blood had flowed from her.

Robin puts his arms around her, and she accepts his comfort, but the quiet there is deafening.

He holds her close, and she thinks she hears a clock ticking away.

* * *

Week five comes and goes, and the nightmares have become constant and persistent; she's barely eating and Henry is starting to worry about her actively. So does Robin but she pushes him off and away, assuring him that she's doing just fine. But he knows just as Henry had.

One night in the middle of the sixth week since their return from the Underworld, they're across from each other in the kitchen of her mansion, both of them nibbling at fruit on a plate, and he offers up, "I always believed that I could live with it. I did." He's smiling as he says this.

Sadly, wistfully, but without accusation.

Still, she asks,"What?"

"I thought I could handle you loving someone else besides me."

"Robin -"

"It's all right," Robin soothes. "Emma."

She shakes her head. "No."

"Yes." He chuckles. "I knew from the first moment I saw you two together. You were easy to figure out, what you felt...she's harder, but not much. But you were obvious." He shrugs. "You said you wanted to be with me, and that was enough. After all that I have put you through -"

"Robin, it's not what you think."

"I think that you need to stop trying to figure this out on your own, and go see Belle. You've been worried what I would think about you trying to save Emma and you've been worried about what would happen to Henry if you went back down there, and didn't return. And I know that you're terrified about your father, but -" another smile and this one sadder and resigned, "You're destroying yourself with guilt over leaving Emma and Snow there. Every night, a terrible nightmare. I think you've had more than enough unforgivable nightmares in your life, my love."

"I do love you; I do," she insists, her eyes filling with tears as another end stares her down.

"I know you do. And I love you dearly, Regina. But I think that both of us deserves the whole thing; I know that you most certainly do." He leans in and gently kisses her and then she's putting her arms around his neck for a moment, and holding on, refusing to lose another person in her life. Robin chuckles at what he feels and assures her, "Our love story might be over, but we're not. Whatever you need from me, Regina, it's yours to have without question."

"Protect my town while I'm away," she pleads.

"And Henry?"

"I want him to stay up here, but there's no way he lets me go back down alone. I could probably try to force him to stay or leave without telling him, but -"

"He's your boy. And Emma's. I expect he will find a way to follow you no matter what any of us do to stop him; he's only stayed still for you. As for Storybrooke, I assure you, it'll be safe."

"Thank you." Another squeeze of the hug and then Robin is backing away and the door is closing behind him, and she's getting sick of what should be tenderness turning to sadness.

But then her muscles are tensing, and though her body is weary from lack of sleep or proper nutrition, she finds resolve quickening her heart. She finds hope giving her surprising clarity.

This can only end one way, she decides.

With everyone home where they belong.

* * *

Belle is as anxious as she is, as afraid of not seeing her husband again as Regina is afraid of not getting to see her Charming Family Idiots again. And Belle, well she has something of a secret that she's been holding onto, something she's so very afraid of, but also so very excited about.

But she'll be a good mother, and Regina assures her of this as she watches Belle rub her swollen belly. Tells her that she's never met a kinder person, perhaps even a better person in her life.

Belle thanks her, says be careful, and then hands her a vial of Rumple's blood and then she gives Regina a small scroll written in ancient Latin, and says, "A combination of Light and Dark will bring you home, Regina - I trust that you know where to find such things."

Regina smiles slightly and says, "I do."

* * *

Henry slips his hand into hers and squeezes, both of their eyes on the little boat that will take them back to the Underworld; his mom is clearly terrified - both of what her choice here will mean for her father and others there and of what they might find when has happened.

It's been six weeks...what if they're too late in returning.

What if something has happened? What if the dreams were prophetic? What if -

But then the boat drifting down dark smoky waters and before they know it, it's docking. Still hand-in-hand, mother and son walk down the pier and make their way into the disturbing version of Storybrooke that this town represents. Everything looks more or less like it once had, though there are a few more shattered windows and the zombie townies seems more skittish.

"They know something," Henry suggests as a young woman rushes away from them.

"They do," Regina agrees. "We need to know what that is." She eyes him carefully, saying her next words with a slight sense of worried wariness, "Henry, I might have to get rough."

"Do what you have to do," he urges. "Just don't -"

"I won't kill anyone," she promises him. And then she's letting go of his hand and turning her attention towards a young man trying to move past her (she recognizes him, and thinks that a long time ago, he had been a thief who had tried to swindle her; he had paid dearly for his crimes, and maybe she owes him more than he owes her, but she cares not of such things right now). She turns him and lifts him and says, "The Savior, Snow White, Prince Charming -"

"They're his guests," the man whimpers

"Hades?"

He nods and swallows and struggles in her grip.

"Where do I find Hades?" she asks, her voice soft.

"You don't want to do that. What he did to the girl -"

Regina's teeth grind, her nightmares flashing through her mind. "Tell me. Or I break a promise to my son. And I really don't want to do that. But I would have to trust he would understand."

Henry says nothing, but his eyes are wide and worried.

The man wilts, "Beneath the library. That's where he is. But he'll -"

"I'm sure he'll try." She drops the man and then turns away from him, turning back towards Henry; behind him, the man scampers away (she thinks that she may have taken his life, but he hadn't been like Robin – he had swindled and lied for his own benefit, and so his unresolved issues are likely with his own victims and not her) but her mind has always switched positions.

"What do we do?" Henry asks her.

"We get help." She lifts her head towards the sky and says, "Mother, I need you. Please."

There's a flash of purple smoke, and then Henry is yelping as Cora is appearing in the space between where Regina and Henry have been standing.

"Why did you come back?" Cora demands. "You shouldn't have. Your father -"

"They're my family, Mother. They have helped me to be strong. I had to come back for them."

"Regina -"

"I love you, Mother. More than you'll ever know. And I hope that you love me enough to help me here. Stand with me against Hades, don't let him hurt Daddy; help me get him to a better place. You know he doesn't deserve this - help me get you there, too. And let me bring my family home."

"It's not that easy. And there's no better place for me, Regina. I did too much."

"Then help me make this place a better one; Purgatory wasn't meant to be Hell. We can make it better. You and me. He can't beat us when we're together," Regina insists, stepping forward.

"She's right," Henry insists, his green eyes cautious but kind; a boy willing to forgive even the worst of things. A boy willing to relentlessly believe in the power of redemption and love.

"Mother," Regina urges once again. "Please." She extends a hand out to her.

Cora's eyes open and close and she breathes in and then out. "All right, then, darling," she murmurs. And then she's taking Regina's hand and with the other, she's waving magic through the air; when the smoke clears, Henry Sr. is standing there, bewildered and a bit afraid.

Until he sees his daughter.

Until she offers him a watery smile. "Daddy."

* * *

It's the four of them - the family Mills - collapsing in on the library.

It's a risk, Regina knows, because no one would ever call Cora Mills trustworthy, but Regina is aware that she can't possibly defeat Hades alone, and she thinks that if she can't trust her mother in this moment when she needs her the very most, then she never will be able to.

Oddly, it's Cora's clear reluctance to do this which convinces Regina that her mother isn't lying to her or leading her into a trap; Cora is full of fear and dread, a shell of her arrogant evil.

But her father is stronger - somehow empowered by his daughter like this.

Proud and certain, confident that this is a quest they will conquer, a family that they will help to reunite; Regina watches her father and her son talk and thinks yes, Henry was named well.

The time for that is up, though and then they're dropping down to the basement and Cora is approaching Hades and flattering him (Regina feels a flare of rage, recognizing that Hades has humbled her mother for no other reason than because he could) as she and her son and father sweep through the tunnels, looking for the cells where the god's prized captives are kept.

She uses magic to subdue, snapping necks and being an angel of death.

Nothing will stand in the way of her saving the people she loves.

* * *

They come across David first. Bruised and beaten, a full beard on his face.

But alive.

"If you say it, I will kill you," Regina warns when he grins up at her.

"Wasn't gonna. I knew you'd be back."

"Why's that?" she asks as she and her son work to free the injured prince.

"You don't leave family behind," David insists.

"No, I don't. The others? Your wife? Emma?"

"Snow is all right. Same as me."

"Emma -"

He swallows hard, a father's pain etched into his face.

"David -"

"She's alive," he says, shaking his hands once the binds are free.

"And Hook? Rumple?"

"Hook is…gone. Hades executed him in front of Emma. Just to show her that he could. I think he planned to do the same to us. You got to us right in the nick of time; he's destroying her."

"No one can destroy Emma Swan," Regina insists. "What about Rumple?"

"Pan has him locked away in a box in his shop. Like he did before."

"One more rescue mission," Regina sighs. "Can you walk?"

"You bet your ass I can."

"Then I need you to go with my father and protect my mother."

"What? Your -"

"I know you hate her. You have every right to considering all that she did. But you protected me when you hated me, and right now, my mother is putting herself on the line to keep Hades off our back. I will find Snow and I will find Emma, but if he realizes what she's up to before -"

"Then we're all screwed," David sighs.

"Yes."

"Prince Henry," David says, nodding to the older man as Regina's father approaches.

"Prince Charming," Henry greets.

"Lovely," Regina says, smiling just a little bit. "Now go."

"You'll be right along?" her father asks.

"I haven't told you how sorry I am yet," she replies.

"I already know," he smiles.

She hears their footsteps a moment later and then she's looking at her son.

"Almost done," she tells him.

* * *

They find Snow not too further up the cell-block. She looks a lot like David, but one of her eyes is swollen shut; Regina heals that immediately and doesn't flinch when Snow hugs her tight.

"My little girl," she says, and it occurs to Regina that Snow isn't surprised to see her, either.

"The next step on this farewell voyage," Regina assures her.

"Regina -"

"I'm not fond of warm temperatures, Snow; I'd like to get back to my town."

Snow smiles at her and lifts her chin, the warrior in her coming out. "Let's find my daughter."

* * *

Emma takes longer to find. She's deeper in the cells, away from the light.

The cell is dark and dank and cold. Miserable and consuming.

Henry sees her first, curled into the back of the cell. He whispers, "Mom!"

It's deja vu from a different world where he'd saved her.

Only this time when she looks up, she sees her mom there as well.

And Regina.

Her face lighting up, Emma tries to sit up, but her body gives out and she collapses with a cry. Apparently, the dreams had been prophetic. And God...God.

"Easy," she hears, and then Regina is kneeling beside her, soft hands on the blonde's cheeks, magical warmth flowing into her; the injuries are too much for a quick fix, but Regina mends what can be mended quickly. "We need to get the - pardon the pun - hell out of here and fast." And then both she and Snow are helping Emma up, wrapping their arms around her waist; Emma moves towards Regina's warmth even as her fingers scrabble for her mother's hand.

For the safety and warmth and love of the people who refuse to let her be lost.

"How do we get out?" Emma asks quietly, not flinching away from Snow's lips on her hair. "That's how we got stopped. No escape plan."

Regina thinks to scold her for that (because a woman like Emma is never sans such a thing), but the man whom Emma had come down here to rescue is dead, and her parents had been tortured for their faith in her, and she herself is a mess of open wounds and far too many tears.

Instead, Regina says, "We have one. We just need to get of here and back to the cemetery."

"Okay," Emma agrees, and doesn't ask the thousands of questions she has.

Like why Regina had come back for her.

Deep down, she thinks she knows.

Hopefully there will be time for those questions - and answers - later.

* * *

You can't actually kill Hades.

But you can temporarily defeat him by throwing his smug smarmy ass into the fireplace if you have three magic users - even one of them as messed up as Emma is - hurling energy at him.

He falls and he screams and he curses and swears revenge, but they're all ignoring him as they flee and race towards the relative safety of the cemetery ("he'll be back to himself soon", Cora warns, fear in her eyes at the punishment that she will most likely have to endure from him).

Regina has other plans.

* * *

They topple Pan in another blast of tri-force magic, and then Regina is grabbing the box and pushing it into Henry's hands (they can use his blood to open it on the surface; they don't have times for questions or Rumple's rage right here and now – they just need to get him home, and Regina thinks that once he sees what he has, then maybe he'll realize he can let go as well).

Next step, the way out, Regina tells them all.

Her eyes meet with Emma and she smiles at her.

Promising her that this nightmare is almost over.

* * *

She leaves Emma in her parent's warm and protective arms for a moment, and then she and Henry walk over to her mother and father. They're next to their own graves, standing several feet away from each other, no more interested in being together in the afterlife than they ever were in life. But everything has changed and for once, they're on the same page in regards to their daughter.

For once, the only thing both of them want is for her to be happy and safe and yes…free.

"I've missed you both terribly," Regina says, tears on her cheeks. She speaks to both of them when she says this but then she's stepping towards her father and hugging him and apologizing for letting him down, and he's doing the same and then telling her just how very proud he is.

The last thing he says before he steps into the light is to the beautiful boy who had been named after him, the brave son who is his daughters heart and her soul, "Take care of her."

Cora is harder to forgive, but when it had mattered, her mother had fought with her.

Had chosen her.

That is enough.

But even the afterlife isn't a fairytale, and there are no gold lights for a woman who had never found peace in her living days. What there is, however, is something she'd never have believed she could or would ever be part of - a resistance. A way to fight back against Hades.

A way to make things…yes, better.

Cora assures Regina she will find a way to defeat him.

If it's the last thing she does.

"No more broken knee-caps, Mother," Regina urges with a small laugh.

Cora smiles and then says, "I was wrong. Love -

"Is strength."

"Yes, Be happy, my beautiful girl. Be everything that I never was."

"I will be." One last hug and the she watches as purple surrounds Cora and she's gone - their paths finally joining and diverging. The end finally warm and right.

"Time to go home," Henry says, an arm around his mother.

* * *

Regina drops down to a knee in front of Emma who has been propped up against Hook's tombstone (she's said her goodbyes, offered her tearful apologies).

"Are you all right?"

"I think every part of me is broken," Emma replies with a wince, her eyes wet.

"Not every part," Regina insists, leaning in and placing a hand over Emma's heart. "Despite what has happened and what you've lost, This is still beating so strong and fierce, Emma. Despite everything, you are still strong. You are still Emma."

Emma blinks her tears back, and then looks up at her parents. "I - I never meant for this to happen..."

"We made our choice to stand with you," Snow insists, her tone vehement and unwavering.

"We'd make it again," David concurs. "We have no regrets."

"Neal -"

"Is safe," Henry promises.

"But would like his family home," Regina adds.

"How do we get there?" Snow asks, her eyes lighting up.

Regina holds up the scroll. "I need you to spill just a little more blood, Emma."

Emma laughs tiredly at that. "Sure, why not? Why, though?"

"This magic requires Light and Dark -"

"Which am I?" Emma asks, quietly, her heart still breaking from the pain of everything.

Regina smiles softly. "Somehow I think our answers wouldn't be the same."

"And maybe it doesn't matter," David offers. "Maybe we're all a bit of both."

"He's right," Snow puts in.

"At least you didn't have to share a cell with them and their insufferable constant hope speeches; that would have been intolerable," Regina quips; it works and as Regina is drawing a blade down Emma's hand, the Savior chuckles.

She cuts her hand next and after saying the spell, drips their combined blood onto the scroll. It simmers and sparks a bright brilliant gold but then does absolutely nothing after that.

"It should have worked," Regina whispers, panic in her eyes. Because the sky up above is dark.

She thinks that Hades is out of the fire, and is coming.

"That's not the kind of Light and Dark that it wants," Henry suggests suddenly, silencing her fear. "I mean, it is about you two...but I think since this world is built on hate and anger -"

"The way out must be about love," Snow whispers.

Drawing an annoyed look from Regina and a groan from Emma.

"Regina," Snow urges, her eyes meeting Regina's with too much knowledge and understand. "Do what you have to do."

Emma shakes her head (as much as she can). "I don't understand."

"Love," Regina says gently. "As in...what I feel for you."

"What you…as in…but Robin -"

Regina swallows. "We're not together, Emma. Because he deserves more than half of me."

Emma's mouth opens and then closes. "I -"

"It's all right; this isn't a True Love kiss, Emma. I'm pretty sure that as long as what you feel for me is...positive, only one of us needs to bring the love to this little party of ours." She's trying to smile through the hurt she feels in her chest. Tries to remember that it doesn't matter.

But then: "You're my best friend; of course I love you," Emma says, her eyes wet and soft. They're just words, and she thinks that Regina doesn't understand them, but for an orphan girl who had never had anything and been betrayed by everyone, they mean everything to her.

Because love is scary and frightening, and her mind is full of fire and screaming and too many goodbyes, and God, it's a door being pushed open in her mind that she's never considered.

Not more than in passing, anyway.

Because there had been Hook and Robin and...

…and Hook is dead.

Her eyes close and she lets out a soft sob.

She thinks that she can't do this again…she can't risk loving and losing and -

Regina's lips brush up against hers. Soft, chaste, gentle.

Tender and sweet.

Without thinking, she lifts her own hands up, cups Regina's face and kisses her back.

The wind starts to howl and then...the air is tearing open and a portal is there. The way home.

They continue kissing.

"Maybe we could do that later," Snow suggests, entirely too much humor in her voice.

"Away from me," Henry adds.

They break, and Regina wipes her mouth and then wipes lipstick off of Emma (Emma has a moment to almost laugh about how Regina had made herself up for the Underworld). But then her eyes are on the portal and she's all business because the hair on the back of her neck is up.

Hades will be here soon.

They have minutes to get out of here.

She starts to say David's name, but he's already in motion, bending to pick up Emma into his arms, holding her protectively against his chest, his hand against her hair, as he steps through the portal. Regina nods for Snow to follow, and then she's reaching out and taking Henry's hand in hers and she's squeezing it so very tight. A look back and then they both walk through.

* * *

Emma takes weeks to heal physically.

Longer emotionally.

But she is healing.

She cries a lot and then tries to put herself back together.

Archie sits beside her on a bench in the park one day, and it takes almost an hour before she speaks and tells him how afraid she is. And how when she looks in a mirror, she sees someone that no one should ever love. Not after all she has done. He listens and listens and then he hands her a picture – one of her sitting at a table with her parents and Regina and Henry. All of them smiling and laughing, her mother's arm slung around her shoulders.

"You're not alone," Archie assures her.

She breaks down in his arms.

* * *

Regina finds Robin a few days after they're back.

Spends time with her niece, cradling the little girl in her arms.

She kisses Robin on the cheek when she leaves, and says "thank you" for keeping his promise.

* * *

Understanding that what they'd shared in the Underworld is too much for Emma to deal with while she's trying to heal and put herself back together, Regina gives her space, but she makes sure Emma wakes up to a voicemail or a text message every day. Nothing but "Good morning, Emma; dinner if you would like it will be served at five. When you're ready, we want you here with us."

It takes Emma three months before she is finally able to accept the invitation.

It takes her until she can walk without her legs shaking and her hands trembling.

Until she can look at her parents without seeing how they'd been hurt for her.

Until she can clear her mind enough to realize that she'd enjoyed the kiss with Regina.

That night, she has dinner with her son and his other mother.

And then when she and Regina are alone and on the back porch, Emma asks, "Did you come back for me just because you're in love with me?"

"No," Regina replies between sips of wine, "Because I love you."

Emma tilts her head. "I don't -"

"Friend or lover, my partner or just my student, you are also part of family. And nothing matters more than that. Nothing ever will. But you Emma, without you, my life is missing something necessary. I've spent most of my life surviving without the people I love the very most, and I could do it again if I had to, but you gave me hope and faith when I had none. I never should have left Hell to begin with."

"I told you -"

"I know. And I still shouldn't have. We're a team, Emma."

"Family."

"Yes."

"And you came back."

Regina's fingers thread with Emma's. She simply says again, "Yes."

* * *

Their second kiss happens four months later.

Four months of family dinners and late nights on the porch, the stars punctuating deep conversations and quiet confessions.

Four months of Sheriff Swan and Mayor Mills falling back into effortless sync with each other.

Four months of Emma and Regina and Henry enjoying movie nights and afternoon park lunches.

And occasionally Snow and David, too.

Four months of healing and listening and just being quiet together.

It happens in the kitchen and while they're putting dishes away after one of those family dinners.

The basin gets over-filled with soap and bubbles, and Regina makes a sarcastic comment about it; Emma pays her back by putting suds on Regina's nose and laughing at the cuteness of it.

At the normalcy of it.

At the rightness of it.

Two women who have been through literal hell, and come back from it together.

When Regina starts to protest, Emma leans in and kisses her.

Soundly, fully and passionately, her hands on Regina's face.

When they separate, Regina lifts an eyebrow and smirks, her own lipstick smeared.

Emma decides to wipe that smirk right of her face.

She succeeds.

Kind of.

 **-Fin**


End file.
